The end of 2023 brought a flurry of news about Kyocera including the launch of new products and relationships. Not only did the company announce the TASKalfa Pro 55000c sheetfed inkjet press to tackle high-quality graphic arts applications, they also announced a strategic relationship with Screen Graphic Solutions on the development of the Screen Truepress JET S320 based on the TASKalfa Pro 55000c. 

The end of 2023 also saw the Kyocera acquisition of NIXKA begin to bear fruit in the inkjet integration market with the launch of the Kyocera NIXKA GENIX full-color print engine and the LENIX print bar targeting packaging and other industrial applications.

These activities demonstrate Kyocera’s ability to support a parallel path of new development with both complete printing solutions for the document market and hardware solutions for OEMs and integrators serving multiple segments. However, the most impressive momentum is shown by the continued success of Kyocera’s first entry into the production printing market, the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c.

A Press With Staying Power

Previewed in 2018, Kyocera brought to market an SRA3 sheetfed inkjet press in December 2019, which was arguably the best performing press at its entry-level price point. More than three years later, it continues to hold that distinction. In fact, the press has been able to compete with a series of significantly more expensive presses, with the notable exception that it does not support offset coated stocks. However, Kyocera has taken advantage of the fact that there is a broad swath of the market that does not require that feature and certainly is not willing to pay more for it. In fact, many printing companies using the TASKalfa Pro 15000c don’t even use the top resolution of 600 x1200 dpi that the press can offer, preferring to run at the top speed of 146 ipm at 600 dpi and use less ink than the higher resolution would demand.

Keeping the focus on the features that their core customers need, including ease of operation and maintenance, low running costs, and consistently high up-time has allowed Kyocera to maintain a very attractive purchase price. They have also avoided the series of field upgrades, or fork-lift upgrades, typical of most presses that have been on the market for three or more years driving further economies of scale in the service and supply chain.

It's important to note that Kyocera continues to invest in the TASKalfa Pro 15000c. There have been new features introduced to add value to Kyocera’s transaction printing customers, including a MICR solution. Dustin Graupman, Senior Director, Ink Jet Division with Kyocera Document Solutions America Inc., is enthusiastic: “This option for the TASKalfa Pro 15000C, developed by our partners at MCS with Kyocera support, brings aqueous MICR to the lowest cost of entry using our highly reliable Kyocera printhead technology.” Kyocera continues to add finishing options to add to the flexibility and reach of the press. It’s also notable that the company continuously pursues environmental certifications, which are increasingly important in the worldwide printing market. To date, the TASKalfa Pro15000c boasts certifications including Energy Star, EPEAT, RoHS and EcoMark, demonstrating that the press can be both cost efficient and environmentally sustainable without compromise. 

Coming into its fourth year of commercial availability, the TASKalfa Pro 15000c continues to tick boxes on customers’ list of buying criteria and outperform expectations. For example, the specifications for the press continue to cite the (2020) projected duty cycle of one million letter pages per month despite experience with customers who run at twice that monthly level or higher. Graupman says the consistency of customers’ success with their first installation is driving a trend toward repeat purchases with customers taking a second or even third press. He reports that, “In 2023 alone, nearly 1 in 4 of our sales have been additional lines for customers who’ve purchased in the past few years. We look at that as evidence customers are clearly succeeding with their initial investments.”

Kyocera has also learned from customer demand that the TASKalfa 15000c is a valuable addition to non-Kyocera fleets. Many customers with existing continuous inkjet presses find that an attractively priced sheetfed press can close gaps in their production processes, giving high-volume producers the ability to standardize on aqueous inkjet technology and optimize the growing demand for short production runs and reprints while enabling a seamless visual appearance to their customers.

The press is also successful in existing toner environments where compatible volumes can be transitioned at dramatically lower running cost than color electrophotographic presses. According to Fred Morrone, Senior Manager, Production Inkjet Marketing, over 30% of all TASKalfa Pro 15000c sales position the product as a complimentary device to existing toner and/or roll-fed inkjet.  He says, “The reason is clear: it is just a better fit for the mix of work that ends up being printed on it. Customers were previously used to looking at this machine as a replacement device for existing equipment. Now more and more businesses are finding that it easily coexists with other technologies. What’s more, over time it pays for itself with its dramatically lower operating costs when compared to other equipment.”

Attracting New Fans 

The TASKalfa 15000c has continued to grow its install base with transactional customers but is also rapidly driving into new market segments. Kyocera has gained traction with both the in-plant and direct mail segments. Like printing companies focused on customer communications, companies in these new segments are ”beginning to realize the immediate ROI of the TASKalfa Pro 15000c as a complement to existing equipment, or to absorb applications currently being produced on toner devices that are better suited for Inkjet,” said Morrone.

The company is seeing uptake of the press in market segments which historically have found inkjet out of reach, such as education in-plant operations and curriculum development and content publishing for the home-schooling segment. “Interest from K-12 education in-plant operations has been accelerating and we have added nearly 10 new customers from these school districts alone,” said Graupman.

In-plant operations come in all shapes and sizes and many provide a range of services from transaction printing to graphic arts and even display graphics. To this end, Kyocera may find some of these customers coming back for a second TASKalfa Pro 15000c press as transaction printing customer have, while others may have part of their work that is a fit for the new TASKalfa Pro 55000c.

There is also significant variation in the direct mail segment with high volumes of letter mail and simple reminder postcards juxtaposed against high-color, high-gloss direct advertising mail. Kyocera has gained momentum from entering new markets while paving the way for their newest graphic arts focused model which will be shown at drupa 2024. The new TASKalfa Pro 55000c is expected to be available in the first half of this year and, together with the TASKalfa Pro 15000c, Kyocera’s increasingly versatile portfolio is expected to deliver a strong showing during the year ahead.